Close Reads Podcast Goldberry Studios
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- Arts
Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader. Featuring David Kern, Tim McIntosh and Heidi White, alongside a couple of other occasional guests, we read Great Books and talk about them. This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. We’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. This is not an experts show and it’s barely literary analysis in the way that literary analysis is commonly understood. Instead it’s a show about experiences with literary urge. Join us!
closereads.substack.com
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An 1860's Book Draft
What’s your favorite book from the 1860s? Something by Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? Dickens or Alcott? This week on Close Reads we’re drafting books from this very important decade in several categories—and you’ll get the final say on whose “roster” of titles is best. So click play and get ready to vote (poll coming soon). Happy listening!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe -
The Summer Book: Second Half
Join us as we dig into the second half of Tove Jansson’s delightful novel, The Summer Book. We discussed whether this is a fundamentally feminine book, the fascinating (and moving) absence of the father throughout, the complex presentation of the grandmother as a character, Jansson’s masterful ending, and much, much more.
Happy listening!
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This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe -
The Summer Book: First Half
Summer is nearly here, so it’s the perfect time to dive into Tove Jansson’s cult classic, The Summer Book, a delightful but melancholy story about the relationship between a young girl and her grandmother and their life on an island. In this episode we chatted about Jansson’s attention to the details of island itself, the unique perspectives of the two main characters, the episode nature of the story and the unique humor in each, and much more. Happy listening!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe -
Trust: Q&A Episode
As always, we’re concluding a series by answering you questions. And, while it may have taken two different recording sessions, we answered as many as we could. Thanks so much to everyone who sent in questions—and happy listening!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe -
Trust: Part 4
We can finally talk about the whole book, which really means we can finally debate all the things we want to debate! So click play and listen in as we argue (sorta) about who can actually be trusted in this book and which theories are actually most . . . trustworthy. Happy listening!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe -
Trust: Part 3
Part three of Hernan Diaz’s novel is quite different than its two predecessors. On the one hand, it shifts the point-of-view away from the Bevel family and offers us a look at them through a regular person, a civilian, if you will. On the other hand, Diaz seems to complicate the book even more in making that choice. So in this episode, we debate what his goals are, whether our narrator in this section can be trusted, and how it deepens (but also clarifies) the mystery at the heart of the book. And we continue dancing around the big reveal to come (and much more, as always). Happy listening!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe